An old bulldozer caught fire while leveling hundreds of acres of bush in the RM of La Broquerie Tuesday afternoon.

La Broquerie Fire Captain Miguel Dube says the property in question was in an odd corner of their municipality south of Highway 12, off of Provincial Road 403, and along Road 38 East. Crews had to drive through Steinbach to get to the blaze.

When crews finally did arrive on scene, they found the bulldozer engulfed in flame in the middle of a cleared forest. Dube says he spoke with the operator. 

“The operator says he smelled something burning and, when he stepped out to investigate, saw a small fire. He tried to put it out but there was too much oil burning so he was unable to get it out with the extinguisher.”

Dube says his firetrucks were unable to cross the dense terrain so his crews too tried the fire extinguisher technique. It too was unsuccessful.

In the end, Dube says the firefighters simply watched and monitored the area as the machine slowly burned itself out.

Dube says the operator escaped with no injury. The bulldozer, however, is a complete loss.

Crews monitored the fire from a distance as their equipment could not proceed across the rugged ground.